Teaser for Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s New Anime Feature “Mary and The Witch’s Flower” Posted

The official website for ex-Studio Ghibli director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (The Secret World of Arrietty, When Marnie Was There)’s new anime feature film Mary to Mahou no Hana/Mary and The Witch’s Floweropened today and posted a 30-second teaser introducing its visuals for the first time. After the commercial failure of Marnie that earned only one-third of Arriety from its domestic run, Yonebayashi left Ghibli in the end of 2014.

Toho will be distributing Mary and The Witch’s Flower in Japan in the summer of 2017.

“Mary and The Witch’s Flower” teaser

The anime film Mary and The Witch’s Flower is based on British novelist Mary Stewart’s children novel

The Little Broomstick published in 1971, and is the first film animated by Studio Ponoc. The studio was

established by ex-Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura on April 15, 2015. Nishimura, who served as the

producer for Isao Takahata’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and Yonebayashi’s Marnie, also left Ghibli

at the same time with Yonebayashi. “Ponoc” means around 12 midnight in Croatian, he put the meaning

of “The beginning of a new day” to the name of the studio. Many ex-Ghibli creators and staff have joined

the studio for the production of Mary and The Witch’s Flower.

Main staff:

Screenplay: Riko Sakaguchi (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya *co-written with Takahata)